37 consejos para estudiantes de sociología

Hace un tiempo puse un post, titulado "Consejos para estudiantes de ciencia política":

http://martintanaka.blogspot.com/2006/12/consejos-para-estudiantes-de-ciencia.html

Siguiendo con esta línea, esta vez presento consejos para sociólogos jóvenes, válidos para estudiantes de ciencias sociales en general (y a todos, en realidad). Los consejos los da el sociólogo Gary Marx. Su página web es interesantísima.

Of Methods and Manners for Aspiring Sociologists: 37 Moral Imperatives
In: The American Sociologist, Feb.-March 1997
Gary T. Marx

The careers and lives that shape the work we do as sociologists are rarely discussed in the classroom or in our writing. When they are, we need to realize that sociological lives may be entangled with sociological lies and as Freud noted biographies may lead to "lying, to concealment, to flummery" (Bettelheim 1990). But such complexity aside, most of our scholarly communication appropriately emphasizes the dispassionate pursuit and reporting of ideas. We are professionally predisposed to be suspicious of the personal when it seeps onto the formal pages of a journal article or book.

There are of course good reasons for this. But I think that in our training of graduate students and mentoring of those starting out we need to give greater attention to making explicit the insights and wisdom that we pass on informally. In general I find the image of the profession presented to our students to be unduly timid, antiseptic, laundered, formal and scholastic. It does not adequately prepare them for the worlds they will enter. One can know a lot about the theory and history of bicycles and about famous bike riders without being able to actually ride a bike. The situation for aspiring sociologists is often parallel. As a popular 1950s song admonished "you gotta know the tricks of the trade".

It is imperative for us as teachers and mentors to discuss the more personal and professional sides of the discipline, even as we encourage students to find their own answers. It is important to see the bigger picture, to locate ourselves within it, to reflect on why and how we do our work and on what gives meaning to our lives. A little anticpatory socialization might prevent many a mid-life crisis. To that end I offer the 37 moral imperatives shown in Table 1. The imperative tone is stylistic and jocular. [2] I make few claims to empirical or moral universals. These are ideas that have worked for me and in which I strongly believe. Each begins with the implicit qualification "in my opinion...."

Table Of Contents

Develop the habits of critical thought, evaluation and observation

Write with clarity, logic and vigor

Write everywhere, all the time, on everything

Have a fresh argument

Write books don't read them

Take short cuts

Learn how to be an effective public speaker

Don't be scriptocentric

Disaggregate and aggregate

Be wary of sociologists bearing over-broad generalizations

Be wary of "Jack Webb-Badge 714 'Just the fact ma'am'" sociologists

Avoid the dangers that can arise from rigidly taking sides in doctrinal debates over theory and method

Diversify. don't stay a specialist in one area too long

Be problem and interdisciplinary as well as discipline focused

Be wary of sociologists denying the desirability and possibility of scientific approaches to understanding society

Treasure and develop the unique position of sociology as both a scientific and humanistic undertaking and should you choose not to straddle the fence, be tolerant of those sitting elsewhere

Know what the questions are

Be bold. Take risks!

Cultivate marginality

Have short and long range plans and goals

Life and sociology are about unfinished business and process

Create real and virtual communities

Actively look for mentors and role models, as well as anti-role models

Seek out those who are more knowledgeable, clever and/or successful than you are

Learn to "meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two imposters just the same"

Don't be selfish! give of your time and your thoughts to others

Be proud to be an academic

Tell it like it is. Speak truth to power and others

Believe in the sociology of knowledge and use it responsibly for insights

Learn to deftly walk back and forth between the point of view of the actor and the observer

Know the difference between a scholar and a fundamentalist

Avoid the exclusionary notion that you must belong to a group in order to study it and that individuals have some special obligation to study groups they belong to

Don't join the thought-police or spend undue amount of time looking for any possible evidence of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, or ageism on the part of your peers

Be aware when you are operating as a scientist and trying to be value-free and when you are a more explicit political actor

Have fun! Enjoy what you do!

Have a sense of humor!

Keep the faith!...Know that both principles and ideas matter and that the indivudal can make a difference. Believe that knowledge is better than ignorance, that knowledge is possible, and that empirical and scientific knowlege about human and social conditions can result in the improvement of those conditions

El texto completo en:
http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/37moral.html